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full screen The mystery of the suspicious hand at a recycling center has been solved.
It was Magnus Sjöström’s hand in a glass jar that created terror at the recycling center Degermyran in Skellefteå.
– I haven’t thought about it in over ten years, he says.
A glass jar arrives at a recycling center in Skellefteå.
In it lies something frozen, in a liquid.
As the staff work, the lump begins to thaw and the gruesome contents are revealed: a human hand.
Since Aftonbladet wrote about the incident on Saturday, the country’s detective brains have gone into overdrive. On internet forums there has been speculation about missing persons and who the hand might belong to.
Now we have the answer.
– If there isn’t one handy in a jar, it’s probably mine, says Magnus Sjöström, 49.
Be satisfied with the “zombie hand”
The hand was created around 2010 in a hobby room in Skellefteå. Magnus was then active in the association Aktiv ungdom Skellefteå.
– I was quite interested in making “film props”. I had bought materials and was thinking of trying to make a cast of a hand.
He remembers that it was a girl in the association who lent her hand for Magnus to make a plaster cast of. He then put on some latex.
– I vaguely remember that it was Allahelgona, so the origin of the idea was to make a zombie hand. I faked that it had started to rot, painted some effects to make it look like it had been in water.
Magnus then put his hand in a glass jar that is in the room and hit some water with dye in it.
– It turned out very well, I thought at the time. I think I even put a little ring on one of the fingers.
Over time, the hand was relegated to a cabinet where it has been locked ever since.
Reported to the police
The reason the can was handed in to the recycling center is that the association in Skellefteå is moving from its premises.
That’s where it was then mistaken for a human hand. The staff alerted the police and the case was transferred to the felony division.
The person who submitted the hand to the recycling center was Michael Wågebrand, chairman of the association.
He knew it was Magnus’ zombie hand in the jar, but was unsure if the liquid could contain dangerous chemicals.
– We went to the chemistry section and asked where we should throw this. And the person working accepted it and we left.
According to him, the hand was not frozen when they handed it in, but must have frozen when the jar was in an enclosure outside overnight.
“Of course you will be happy”
When a friend sent Aftonbladet’s article to Magnus, he had a laugh.
– But then we had to call the police so that they don’t waste a lot of time and do a DNA test on that thing.
The staff must have been quite shocked and thought it was a real hand. Do you feel proud of your work?
– Of course you are happy that something you have done has been mistaken for something real. But I absolutely understand that it must have felt very uncomfortable.
Magnus jokingly says that he should have entered the film prop career.
– It never became more than a side interest. But it was great fun reading about it. Now I would love to have it back, when there is a story attached to it.